A Thorne At Her Side
by Caught In A Simple Game
Summary: The last thing Boden Bryce wanted was a new partner. The last thing Thorne wanted was a low-profile job. The first thing they need? Maybe each other.
1. Chapter 1

The petite brunette checked for the third time that the rope was secure, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the window ledge.

Cars rushed back and forth on the street below her, not even noticing the daredevil feat that was about to take place. Behind her, she could hear the angry voices coming up the stairwell. They would be hard-pressed to find her in the dark, but she still knew she did not have much time.

The cool breeze blew her ponytail in her face; she brushed it back out of sight. The voices were coming closer. It was now or never.

She had only taken one foot from the ledge when someone grabbed her from behind, pulled her back inside, and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Not leaving without me, are ya?"

She smile, despite their circumstances. Her partner had been shot before they completed their mission and told her to keep going without him. It seemed at the last minute he had been able to catch up with her.

The man had trained her from the beginning, taught her everything she knew, and now refused to take on another partner. She had learned quickly, given him faith that a woman could do the job, and couldn't imagine a career without him.

"We're in a wicked tight spot," she informed him.

"Not as tight as you think," he replied. "I'll distract them while you make a break back for the ground floor. Let the old man take the scary route out of here."

She frowned. "You're already injured. A distraction could mean –"

"Listen, kid. I may have taught you everything you know, but it doesn't mean I taught you everything I know. I'm giving you an order here."

She pursed her lips together; when in her life had she ever been able to defy orders? Quickly and with learned hands, she undid the knot in the rope and re-secured the rope to her partner's harness. She would have to give him some lead-off, so she made way into the dark hallway, found the receptionist's desk, and used it to hoist herself up through the ceiling tiles. Moving through the duct work, she cocked her gun and braced herself. Without ear plugs, this was not going to be fun.

The bullet ricocheted down the sheet metal tunnel, leading their enemies away from the room where her partner was waiting. It would give him time to set up his distraction, but also give her time to recover from the ringing in her ears. The sound of the glock firing was not exactly forgiving as it was, but to have the sound waves enclosed around her and bouncing off the sheet metal only made the effect crueler.

When the ringing had receded to a dull buzz, she carefully crawled back in the direction she had come. Assuming the distraction had been successful, she should have been hearing a lot more noise – unless her ears had really given out from the gunshot.

As she neared the space over the office where she had nearly jumped from the window, she heard the grisly sound of fist against flesh. The groans of pain that followed were too close to the familiar voice of her partner.

She slid over a ceiling tile as carefully and quietly as she could. The three men left from those that had attacked them downstairs were taking turns beating her partner. Anger raged within her, and she reminded herself that these men were to be captured alive or left at large. Compromising with herself that she would only temporarily incapacitate them so she and her partner could make an escape, she cocked her gun and took aim at the man who seemed to be the ringleader.

It happened in a matter of seconds. The man was beating her mentor, she blinked, and then her partner was dead on the ground, a puddle of blood coming from the back of his head and growing larger by the second. The rage that built up within her was one she had felt only before in her life, and was accompanied by a single thought.

To hell with her orders.

Her first shot pierced a hole near the spine of the ringleader. The other two men were tending to him while she jumped down from the ceiling. The second man would die in a few seconds from the slash across his throat, and a second after the third man thought to defend himself, she had stabbed him through the heart.

There was no time to stop and mourn her partner – her friend. She did as would have her do and pulled all identifying items from his person. She tucked them inside her shirt, radioed her position, and untied the roe from his harness. She once again rigged herself up and stepped onto the window pane. There was no hesitation this time as she took a step off; in seconds she was hanging from the window, walking herself down the side of the building.

The man with the knife wound in his chest appeared at the window. He was coughing up blood and his features were pale. With the last of his energy, he grabbed for his own knife and sawed at the rope just above the window pane.

There was no way she would make it down before the rope gave way, but she hurried to make the fall as short as possible. From much higher than she would have liked, she began to free fall to the cement below.

With a hard thud, Boden Bryce hit the sidewalk. Everything for some hours after that was darkness.

xXx

Thorne sat next to Barney Ross at the bar, sipping his beer and trying to understand the offer Barney had just made him.

"You get that I'm highly over-qualified for this job, right? I shut down cities and high-tech security systems. There was all the shit with Stonebanks, and now you want me to take some security guard job?"

Barney turned to him. "You're right, you are over-qualified for this. But this woman needs to be a bodyguard just as much as she needs a guard on the technical side. Everything she does – phone calls, emails, hotel reservations – everything has to be guarded. If the people who are after her find her before she finds them, they'll kill her."

Casually, Barney slid a folder over to him. Thorne opened it and looked over all the information. This woman was beautiful, accomplished, and it seemed as though she had all the training she needed to protect herself without his help.

"She's not as tech savvy as you are," Barney said, as though he could read Thorne's thoughts. "This is serious, Thorne. She may look tough, but she isn't Luna. After a mission that went bad, she's a little bit of a mess."

Thorne took a lighter and torched the folder. No evidence left behind. "What kind of a mess? I'm not a babysitter, Barney."

"I get that," Barney assured. "She needs someone with a stable mind around, to help her get to these guys."

"So I'll be her partner."

"You'll be helping her, but essentially you're there to protect her, from whatever comes at her. A thug in a convenience store, this assholes who want her dead, whatever the case may be."

"What's the pay?"

Barney named a number. "And it's all yours."

Before the fire could reach it, Thorne pulled the wallet-sized picture of her and shoved it in his back pocket. He finished off his beer and shook hands with Barney.

"I'm in."

xXx

Boden was shouldering her duffle bag up to a hotel room, pretending like her whole body didn't still hurt from the fall from that window. That had been almost a month ago, but her broken ribs were still healing. The bruises were finally receding, and the internal bleeding had no complications after the surgery to fix it. It was a miracle that no other bones had broken.

She slid a keycard into the door, groaning in defeat when the red light flashed at her. She slid it again, with the same result.

"Here, let me help you."

She turned to the man next to her. He gently took the key card from her hand and slid it just so; the light went green and the door clicked.

Taking the key card back, Boden muttered, "Thanks."

"Hey, I'm Thorne, by the way. Your new partner."

Boden frowned as she dropped her bag on one of the beds. "Thought I was getting more of a bodyguard. Not that I'm happy about that either."

Thorne was taken aback by her tone. "A little of both, I guess."

Boden studied him for a few moments before reaching out her hand to shake his. "Boden Bryce. Perfectly capable not only of taking care of myself, but figuring this whole thing out on my own. If I didn't accept you coming on with me though, they wouldn't let me keep this case. Let's just be clear right now that if you get in my way, I'll find a way to keep my case and get rid of you."

"Slow down, princess," Thorne replied, holding his hands up in surrender. "I don't exactly want to be here any more than you seem to want me here, all right? This job isn't exactly going on a résumé. I took it for the money and because Barney Ross is a good friend of mine."

"I don't even know Barney Ross," Boden shot back. "So you'll have to excuse me if I don't seem impressed."

Thorne scoffed. "What a joke. Look, we clearly don't want to be around each other, but we both have a job to do, so besides that, why don't we just try to stay out of each other's way."

"Fine by me."

"Great. I need all your electronics."

Boden raised her brow. "Excuse me?"

"I specialize in a lot of tech stuff that you probably can't even wrap your mind around. One of my duties here is to make sure no one tracks you down via your phone, your internet connection, whatever it is. So if you could just hand over all your shit, I'll make sure we're safe on that end, then you can go right back to pouting in the corner."

Narrowing her eyes, Boden shoved her messenger bag in his direction. "They're all in there, big shot. I assume you're all right with me taking a shower while you throw up firewalls or whatever?"

"It's a little more complicated than fire walls, but sure. Do whatever you need to do, princess."

Boden rolled her eyes as she gathered clean clothes from her duffle. "Call me princess one more time and you're going to regret it."

She disappeared into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. When the water was warm enough, Boden took a deep breath and pulled her shirt over her shoulders. Nothing was more painful than raising her arms, so every time she dressed and undressed, the pain was inevitable. Reaching for an orange bottle, she shook out one pain killer, swallowed it down, and let out the breath she'd been holding. Boden stripped off the rest of her clothes, let her hair out of its braid and stepped carefully into the shower.

xXx

While he finished securing her devices, Thorne dialed Barney. The old man picked up after four rings, just when Thorne had about given up on him.

"Make it in all right?" Barney greeted.

"Yeah, I'm here. Barney, this chick is a trip. You said she was more fragile than Luna, but I'm not seeing it yet."

"Give it time," Barney warned. "I'm guessing you'll get a glimpse of it before the night is over."

"You know, when you introduced this to me, it sounded like you knew her. She said she doesn't know you, though."

"She doesn't. Look, Thorne, I've got to cut this short. Be patient with Boden."

The line disconnected; Thorne looked at the phone in disbelief. "Thanks for the help, boss."

A few more minutes and he returned everything where he'd found it in her bag, although he was tempted to just drop everything on the bed next to her duffle bag. Realizing the shower had been running for a while now, he went and knocked on the door.

"Hey, Boden, think you can save some hot water?" No answer; Thorne's heart beat a little faster. "Come on, I know I was a jerk. Doesn't mean I should have to take a cold shower."

Still no answer. Thorne pressed his ear against the door; was that whimpering that he heard? Whatever it was, it told him that something wasn't right. Going back to his bag for a gun, he called her name one last time before kicking the door open.

If anyone was in the bathroom with Boden, they were in the shower with her. Risking embarrassment for both of them if he was wrong, Thorne pulled back the shower curtain, ready to shoot if necessary.

Only Boden was there, crumpled in a ball on the floor of the tub. The water was cold by now, and she was shivering as she cried. Setting his gun on the counter, Thorne turned the water off before getting a towel and lifting her out of the tub.

She clung to him as though they were familiar, and he was the relief of safety. He tried to say comforting things as he rushed her back to her bed and laid her under the covers, tucking them tight around her.

"We have to warm you up," he encouraged.

Tears streamed down her face, and Boden didn't bother hiding them. "I don't care. I don't care, I just want to go back."

Thorne assumed she didn't mean back to the shower. "Listen, whatever it is, Boden, I'm sure it's going to be all right. Everything gets easier with time."

She cried harder, making him fear that he had said the wrong thing. This must have been what Barney was talking about – the messy part of Boden. At any rate, Thorne figured his job was to protect her from anything and everything, so he did the only other thing he could think of. He kneeled next to the bed, stroking her wet hair, wiping her tears, and holding her hand until she fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Boden woke several hours later, disoriented and with her ribs screaming in pain again. Before moving, she tried her best to remember what had happened.

What did she know for certain? Not much. She was mostly naked except for the towel crudely wrapped around her. At least the blankets were covering her. Boden reached for the towel and managed to get it better wrapped around her body before sitting up.

"How are you feeling?" Thorne asked from beside her.

_Oh, God_. "Confused. "

He got up, and Boden noted that he was fully-clothed and had been on top of the blanket. "Here, have some water."

She heard the bathroom faucet running, and it all came back to her. The pain pill. The shower. Those awful memories. The crying. Thorne lifting her out of the cold tub. Boden begging him not to go anywhere. Thorne crawling onto the bed beside her, holding her for comfort.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, unable to meet his eyes as she took the plastic cup of water.

"Don't worry about it." His haughty tone irritated her.

"The pain pills make me over-emotional. I get to thinking about things and kind of fall apart. Obviously. I'll try to get by without them so this won't happen again."

Thorne leaned against the desk in the room. "It's whatever. That's what I'm here for, right, Princess?"

Anger coursed through her veins. This man was like a petulant child. "What did I tell you about calling me that?"

She stood toe-to-toe with him, trying to look intimidating in her towel, tangled hair and short stature. Thorne looked only amused.

"I know, but it just seems to suit you," he chuckled. "If we can move past all this now, it'd be great if you can brief me on what you have so far."

"Mind if I make myself presentable first?"

Thorne shrugged. "I don't mind the towel."

Boden glared at him as she made way for the bathroom. Thorne was yet another reason why she wanted to find these people and be done with this case as quickly as possible.

xXx

Thorne got together as much information as he could while Boden did her grooming routine. One a curios whim, he started a background check on her – different than the one Barney had given him. This one would be more specific, more detailed and personal. Wanting to let the program gather as much information as possible, he minimized it to the background and went back to information pertinent to their current purpose.

Boden came out of the bathroom ten minute later in a loose tank top, jeans, and her long hair trailing a braid over her shoulder. It seemed she had applied some light make-up. Several tattoos he hadn't paid much attention to when lifting her from the shower were now visible around the cut of her shirt.

He hadn't realized how entranced he was with her until she called his name.

"Sorry, what?"

Boden rolled her yes. "You still have my phone."

He looked around the various electronic devices around him and spotted her mobile. "Everything else is in your bag."

"Thanks." She scrolled through various missed calls and messages until her eyes grew wide at one. "Let's make this quick – I've got to meet someone for some information."

"I'm all ears."

"All right." She took a deep breath, wincing at the pain caused by the action. "Fifteen years ago, a man named Dimitri Biermann was apprehended and sent to trial on terrorism and arms charges. He should have landed his ass at The Hague or Guantanamo or some equally disgusting shit-hole. Instead, every witness they had lined up was dead or lied on the stand. All the evidence disappeared. So, they had to let him go. After that, no one knew where he went, if he was alive. Any of it. He was completely off the grid.

"Then, about two years ago, this guy shows up to the American embassy in Germany. Nobody knows who he is, he looks like he's literally been under a rock. He tells them that he has been held captive by Dimitri Biermann, and will give them all the information he has if they promise to protect him from being kidnapped again. He gives them _everything_. Biermann's aliases, his current business agreements, even the names of some of the men working with him."

"So they went and got him, right?" Thorne surmised.

Boden shook her head. "No. The location that man gave the people at the embassy was cleared out by the time they got there. The records for each alias had been marked 'deceased' months before that, and only one of the business agreements were still afloat. The men that had been named were mostly dead. And the guy that gave us the information, he died inexplicably his first night under protection. Autopsy revealed absolutely nothing."

Thorne nodded for her to continue. "This is getting good."

"Right?" For the first time, Boden smiled in his presence. It lit up her eyes and certainly brightened his day. "So my agency put their top people in intelligence on this. They did a lot of tracking, a lot of recon, and a lot of other dangerous stuff to get the information we needed. They found all sorts of stuff – new arms dealings, money laundering to terrorist factions, murder – anything you can think of. Then, they hit the jackpot: the evidence from the trial they had to drop."

Thorne frowned. "Can they use that? I mean, what about double-jeopardy?"

"They called it a mistrial because of the theft of the evidence. Prosecutors couldn't ever get more evidence, so it fell through the cracks. A month or so ago, two agents went in to retrieve that evidence."

"And what happened?"

Boden's features fell and she leaned back against the chair. "Only one of them made it out. Without the evidence."

She got up from the chair, slipping her feet into a pair of sandals and retreating back into the bathroom. Thorne pulled his boots on and tried to figure out why losing an agent would affect her so much. Of course, she must have known the guy. Was it her father? Her brother? He didn't even know if he wanted to ask.

"Where are we meeting this person at?"

"We?" Boden repeated, coming out of the bathroom with fresh make-up and her hair in some sort of bun behind her head. Her bangs fell across her forehead, and he had the weirdest urge to brush them back.

"Yes, we. We're in this together, right? I go where you go?"

Boden shook her head. "Not on this one. There's no danger here, trust me."

"My job is to protect you, Boden. I'm going with you."

"You're not," she stated clearly, crossed her arms over her chest.

He licked his lips and decided to push her buttons. "Then tell me about the agents who failed to retrieve that evidence."

He thought that he saw her eyes water in the few seconds before she answered, "It's irrelevant."

She shoved a hotel key and some cash along with an ID in her pocket, and was out the door before he could process anything else.

xXx

Since her contact was apparently not at the club yet, Boden chose a stool at the bar and flagged down the buxom blonde running drinks.

"Budweiser, long neck," she requested, tossing a few one's on the counter in front of her. Her beer had just been delivered when a familiar voice spoke up behind her.

"Still drinking that piss-water, I see."

Boden turned to her left. "Vic. Good to see you, too. What do you have for me?"

Victor asked for a vodka on the rocks and occupied the stool next to her. "Straight to business, Bo? Really? After everything we've been through together, I expected at least a few pleasantries."

"Yeah, well, pleasant isn't really my thing anymore," Boden replied. "I've got things to do."

"Things to do, cases to crack, people to kill. Isn't that always the way of it?" Vic shook his head. "It's sad, really. The agency could use you, if they were going to keep you on."

Boden nearly choked on her beer. "Say what?"

"That's my information for you. You're only on this case so they can process you out while you're distracted. They get the information and people they want, and you – well, actually, there's no win for you. Unfortunately."

"They need me," Boden argued. "I've done more in the last six years than –"

"You're a standout performer, in more ways than one." He gave her a wink that made her want to punch him then and there; making a scene be damned. "But you're dispensable. You're not the only woman on earth who has your skills or could learn them. Not saying your kind is a dime a dozen, but you're not all that rare."

Boden finished off her beer and dropped an extra five in the tip jar. "Well, thanks for the uplifting, helpful news, Vic, but I've heard enough. See you around."

Vic grabbed her arm before she could walk away. "Get out now, Bo. I'm telling you, this will not end well for you. Everyone surrounding this case dies. I don't want that to be you."

"I'll be fine."

"Just in case, why don't you dance one song with me. For old time's sake." Vic made to lead her to the dance floor, but Boden resisted.

"Really, I've got to go. C'mon, Vic, I'm not screwing around."

He was pulling her now, and it was hell on her still-broken ribs. She struggled against them, but the pain forced her muscles to follow his lead. They were nearly through the crowd when someone hooked an arm around her abdomen and pulled her away from Victor.

"I think she told you she's not interested," Thorne said, tucking her just behind him. "You go on and enjoy your night. I'll be taking her with me."

Victor laughed. "Is this guy serious? You know him?"

Boden nodded, stepping beside Thorne and taking his hand. "Good seeing you, Vic."

Thorne didn't ask questions, just played along as he guided her through the crowd to the door with a hand at the small of her back. They stood on the sidewalk together while Thorne hailed a cab. In case they were followed, he put an arm around her shoulders in the cab, and held her hand until they were in the hotel room.

"How the hell did you find me?" Boden frowned.

"Your devices," Thorne answered. "I've got the GPS mark on all of them now. As long as a satellite can reach you, so can I."

She sat on the edge of the bed and pushed off her shoes. Her eyes watered with pain and confusion and betrayal.

"I'm sorry I left without you," she finally said. "That guy, Victor, works for the agency, too. We were together for a while. He's having a hard time letting it go."

"But you're not," Thorne added, sitting across from her in the desk chair.

"I let it go a long time before I told him I had let it go," she admitted. "Anyway. The point is, the information he had for me is that the agency is letting me go after this case. They're only letting me handle this so that they get the information they need, and can process me out without me knowing while I'm working on it."

Thorne raised his brow. "You're serious? Isn't there someone there who can stop that from happening … stand up for you?"

"If there still was, it would have been Vic." She swallowed hard. Time to tell him everything. "Keith would have, if he were alive. He was my mentor and my partner. Taught me everything I know. We were the two agents that failed that mission."

"And you were the one that made it out," he finished quietly.

Boden nodded. "Dimitri Biermann ordered the destruction of a building in Dublin where my parents worked. He had my brother killed while he was protecting the man who gave the United States all the information on him. His men killed Keith the night we went in to retrieve that evidence."

"That's how you hurt your ribs?"

"Yes. I was trying to get out through a window and one of them cut the rope. Internal bleeding, broken ribs, bumps and bruises. I got out lucky. But I would do anything to trade spots with Keith – not saying I want to die. Just saying he deserves something."

She fought back tears as Thorne moved forward and took both of her hands in his. "I'm sorry all that happened to you."

She met his eyes. "Listen, Thorne, I know that in the few hours we've known each other I've been a pain in the ass. But this man took away everyone close to me, and now I'm losing the agency, too. I can't promise I won't be a pain in the ass going forward, but I promise I'll try to be better about it, if you promise to help me find him. You're all I have left."

Thorne gave in to his temptation from earlier and brushed her bangs back away from her face. "I promise, I will help you find him."

Without warning, she threw her arms around his neck and held on tight. Thorne held her back, not sure what else to do.

Boden was afraid to let go. In just a few hours this man had already saved her twice, and when she had been nothing but a bitch to him – and a crying mess. Finally able to compose herself, she backed away, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"I'm really sorry. I guess someone should have warned you that I was a mess."

Thorne shook his head, not bothering to tell her what Barney had said. "It's fine. I promise. How about this? We'll order up some room service, get to know each other a little better, get a good night's rest and tomorrow you can go back to being a bossy pain in my ass."

Boden laughed. "Sounds like a good idea to me."

Thorne got up to retrieve the menu, and Boden took another deep breath. She would figure this out. She would find Dimitri Biermann, with Thorne's help, and then she would start to put her life back together. Somehow.


End file.
